THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Hoover's Cooking Restaurant Review

: Hoovers seems to be striving for clean, well-lighted-place status. In spades; theres practically no décor in the applied sense, the colors are bland and the tables are so well-spaced that plenty of room is left for kids to frolic about. Yes, the place is family-friendly and the kids menu is genuinely interesting, with offerings from meat loaf to fried catfish that mirror the home-cookin air of the grownup menu. Seniors seem to like the place too, especially during the daily happy hour when appetizers are half price. (Enormous portions are par for the course, as well, which means there's always something left to take home.) As for big persons food, the sandwich selection covers ground from New Orleans muffulettas to catfish po boys and locally famous Elgin. House Warmers include chipotle chicken quesadillas in a nod to South Texas tradition, but the Aus-Tex wings, a very smoky-spicy-sweet rendition of the Buffalo classic, are more true to the menu---and the melody lingers on long after youve finished them. Assuming you can finish them. Ditto the half-pound meat loaf with a very chunky Creole sauce. Sides such as mashed potatoes, for all their chunky looks and cream gravy topping, have been disappointing, and black eyed peas, a staple of Southern cooking, were curiously tasteless. Sweet potato pie, on the other hand, is of the essence; just forget theres supposed to be a crust.